Friday, August 26, 2011

I've had this on my blog for a while and I thought with all the recent posts about vector graphics, now would be a good time to share it here.

Hahana Beach is a sports bar and restaurant that hosts professional sand volleyball tournaments. It opened up on Wooster Pike a year ago this week.

Last spring, just months before the big opening, I was invited by Parkey Design to help create a logo that encapsulates what the place is all about: fierce competition and fun under the sun that continues well into the night. Influences ranging from tiki kitsch and South Beach fashion to Melanesian tribal tattoos went into its creation. The fun part was creating a strong sense of personality while limiting myself to basic geometric shapes and a single line weight.

Above is one of my favorite versions that didn't make the final cut. You can find two others on my blog.

I've taken the family to the place a few times, and I highly recommend going on a sultry Saturday evening when you can sometimes play on the courts after your meal.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Seeing all this talk about vector graphics - I thought I would show y'all the vector graphics that I have been working on lately. This piece was created entirely in Illustrator and is just an experimental painting. I plan on printing it out very large - like around 5 feet wide on a banner that will hang in a fine art exhibition.

I was wondering if anyone had any critical suggestions about it before I go ahead and print it out.

Aidin says: Don't forget to come to my Art opening this Friday from 6pm-10pm. Obviously you don't have to stay 4 hours, but you might, since I have a bunch of paintings to be seen, and all other galleries on Main are showing Art. The show will be at OTR: OriginalThought Required @1307 Main Street, 45219.

Please join the NCS Great Lakes Chapter and friends on Saturday, September 17, 2011for two special events!

A Show Opening and Special Reception
for Roy Doty’s wonderful illustrations
from 3:00 – 4:30 PM
at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
of Ohio State University
27 West 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus, Ohio

Then, continue the festivities with a delicious celebratory dinner
at Schmidt’s Historic German Village Restaurant240 East Kossuth St.
Columbus, Ohio
from 5:00 to 8:00 PM
during which we will toast, thank, and
congratulate both Roy Doty
and Lucy Shelton Caswell on their
many, many achievements including this
year’s top awards from the National Cartoonists Society,
the Gold Key Award (Cartoonists Hall of Fame) for Roy
and the Silver T-Square Award for Lucy.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Posted for Justin since we have been talking vector for toy products, here are 4 images from a series I did for one of my toy clients 7ish years ago. All vector each for a different collection of fairy tales which explains the mash up of characters. It is in layers of line drawings that were streamlines.

I actually cannot believe I found this on one of my old hard drives. I am a bit of a digital pack rat... See if you can guess the stories in each image...

Friday, August 19, 2011

I wanted to share this work in progress: a movie poster for a local filmmaker. The credits will be on the side of the "wall" that our young mischief makers are peering around.

The filmmaker is looking for a "punk" look for the finished piece, and she's not quite sure what she means. I plan to put the film's title and credits at slashing, conflicting angles on the wall. I don't yet know how I'm going to ink the work to "punk it up," nor how I want to use colors and color shapes. It's a puzzle that I'm working on. Your input / suggestions are welcome.

Monday, August 15, 2011

This is another illustratour piece. I'd like some critique, if you have any. I am going to stop for a minute and finish this when I hear back from some of you and my friend in Connecticut. Impressions? Likes? Dislikes?

I also included some of the sketches/studies I did for this piece.

I'm really happy with how this piece turned out. Making some changes based on the critiques of some of the awesome people from this blog, and from my best friend, Chris, and from my own observations, I was able to come up with a very unified image I can beproud of. I am really happy with the change in the cloud location. The one touching both the boat and the castle. You can see in the first images, that cloud was awkwardly tangent in several places. Just nudging it a little to the right made all the difference in the world and helped to create a convincing sense of 'space' and develops a heirarchy of shape from foreground to background. The changes I made to the ship helped it to become to centre of focus while not coming off too strong, or heavy handed. I made a change I did not post here, where I really cranked up the ship. It was a lot more complicated in design, and a bold blood red. It was very strong and hard to look at. Toning it back down and removing some of the design elements helped a great deal. I hope you guys like this. And feel free to critique away! It's not perfect and I can use the information for later pieces (this one is finished, for now).

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Here's my vectour dragon illustration :P I updated the dragon, dropping the opacity on the scales, wing bones, and knee swirl. I also reduced the stroke size on the smoke and dropped its opacity. This also did wonders! Thanks, Chuck! :)

This photo is from the Hamilton County 4-H Community Fair, where Mark Willenbrink volunteered to judge the art competition. Betsy DeMatteo, Family & Consumer Science Program Coordinator for OSU Extension, Hamilton County, said: Mark Willenbrink did a fabulous job of evaluating the quality & difficulty of each exhibit. He judged paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics & other fine art. Mark's extensive experience was evident, and his passion for art & artists was clear. We could not have found a more qualified, professional & discerning fine arts judge.

It was brought to my attention that I was absent for a long time, and people noticed it :P Very kind of you. I've just been super busy. I have a couple big commissions, on top of a busy next couple of weeks preparing some new pieces for a portfolio to pitch to a Connecticut-based company called, Melissa and Doug.

I AM working on my own stuff, too. I have several pieces for you guys, actually. Some old school, some new for me.

The character sheets are from the book my friend and I are making. We actually have a publisher, now, who can market us broaden our customer base. This is going to be one kick ass product, guys. No joke. I can't wait to finish it! These characters are hand-drawn and inked, then plunked into the character sheet format (that was also hand-drawn and inked) using Photoshop. I wanted these to feel like old school character sheets, with a bit of a twist. Going for nostalgia, here :)

The map is from an AD&D campaign world I am preparing adventures for. It's a combination of hand-drawn inking, and colour and parchment effect in Photoshop.

The Woman is the same technique used for the map and will be a portfolio piece for my M&D interview.

Enjoy, folks! And sorry for being away so long. There's been a lot of work from you all, lately :) It all looks so nice. I'll comment when I grab another second. I'm working on a cartoon dragon and princess, today, in Illustratour CS2. When I take a break, I'll look around and write some replies :)

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About the blog

Cincinnati has a great wealth of talent in the field of illustration. This blog is designed to be an outlet for artists who live and work in the Queen City and surrounding region. Posts include recently completed work (published or personal), info on upcoming events, pictures from past events and shows, book signings, techniques, inspirations, progress variations, sketches and news in the world of illustration.

All images are copyrighted by the artist posted in each entry unless otherwise noted. Do not use without permission.

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